$100 in 1948 is worth $600 in 1993,
because prices increased 499.6% over that period, an average of
4.06% a year.
$100 in 1948 has
the same buying power as
$600
in 1993
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
499.6%
Average inflation rate
4.06% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$600
Price difference ($100 base)
$500
CPI in 1948
24.1
CPI in 1993
144.5
Inflation in 1948
8.07%
Inflation in 1993
2.99%
$100 in 1948 → 1993
$600
$100 in 1993 → 1948
$16.68
What happened to prices between 1948 and 1993
Between 1948 and 1993, the Consumer Price Index went from 24.1 to 144.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 499.6%, which works out to an average of
4.06% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1948 bought what
$0.17 buys in 1993: the 1948 dollar
lost 83.3% of its purchasing power over
these 45 years.
Consumer prices rose 8.1% in 1948, down slightly from 1947’s
14.4% but still the second straight year of sharp postwar inflation now
that wartime price controls were fully gone. Congress moved to stabilize a
different economy that April, passing the Economic Cooperation Act to fund
the plan Secretary of State George Marshall had proposed the year before:
more than $13 billion over four years to rebuild Western Europe and counter
Soviet influence. The Cold War turned tense closer to the plan’s target
that June, when Soviet forces cut off road and rail access to the
Western-controlled sectors of Berlin. American and British aircraft
responded almost immediately with an airlift of food, fuel, and supplies
that would keep the city running for nearly a year. Domestic politics
produced its own upset that November: nearly every poll and pundit had
predicted a Republican win, but Harry Truman defeated New York Governor
Thomas Dewey, handing the Chicago Tribune its famously wrong “Dewey Defeats
Truman” headline. Consumer prices finished the year 143.4% above their
1913 level and 40.9% above 1929’s
pre-Depression peak. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum
wage stayed at 40 cents an hour.
Every 1948 amount converts to 1993 at the same ratio, 6.00: $1,000 becomes
$5,996, and $10,000 becomes $59,959.
Amount in 1948
Value in 1993
$1.00
$6.00
$5.00
$29.98
$10.00
$59.96
$20.00
$120
$50.00
$300
$100
$600
$500
$2,998
$1,000
$5,996
$5,000
$29,979
$10,000
$59,959
$100,000
$599,585
$1,000,000
$5,995,851
Inflation by spending category, 1948–1993
Between 1948 and 1993, medical care rose the most, up 1298.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 214.6%, against 499.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1948
spending costs in 1993, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1948 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.06%
$600
Medical care
6.04%
$1,399
Transportation
4.19%
$633
Food
3.82%
$540
Apparel
2.58%
$315
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1948: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1948 to 1993
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1940s (0.00% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1948–1993 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1948, at end
1948–1950
0.00%
0.0%
$100
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$123
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$161
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$342
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$542
1990–1993
3.40%
10.6%
$600
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1948
$100 from 1948 had already become $161 by
1970, on its way to $600 in 1993; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 13.5% in 1980, and prices fell 1.2% in 1949, the deepest deflation of the period.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1993
In 1993, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1948 had the buying
power of $600; the year's average CPI of 144.5 is the level
behind every 1993 figure on this page.
By 1993, the median household earned about $31,200, gas averaged $1.11 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $126,500. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the year, holding close to where it had settled
the year before as the recovery slowly gathered strength. Washington spent much of the year on
two pieces of unfinished business from the recession: a deficit-reduction package, the Omnibus
Budget Reconciliation Act, that raised the top income tax rate to 39.6% to start narrowing a
budget gap left over from the 1980s, and a trade deal, the North American Free Trade Agreement,
that President Clinton signed into law in December after a contentious fight in Congress. NAFTA
phased out most tariffs between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada and took effect the following
January. The year’s other defining event had nothing to do with the economy: in February, a bomb
exploded in the World Trade Center’s parking garage, killing six people and injuring more than a
thousand. By year’s end, the pieces of the decade’s later economic story, freer trade, a
shrinking deficit, and inflation holding near 3%, were already in place.
MLA: “Inflation from 1948 to 1993: $100 is worth $600 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1948-to-1993/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1948 to 1993. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1948-to-1993/